Nationalist MP Tonio Fenech has convened a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee for tomorrow to formally request the government to produce the contract it awarded Henley and Partners for the administration of the citizenship scheme.

The decision follows a ruling by the Speaker yesterday that the committee had every right to make such a request to the government.

Mr Fenech is chairman of the PAC.

In his ruling, Speaker Anglu Farrugia said the committee chairman needed to ensure that the necessary safeguards were taken to safeguard the interests of justice in view of a pending challenge by one of the bidders for the contract. There also needed to be safeguards on the disclosure of sensitive commercial information and national security.

DISAGREEMENT ON PUBLICATION TIMING

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil called for the contract to be published immediately.

But the Office of the Prime Minister said late yesterday that the contract would be published in due time after a formal request by the Public Accounts Committee when the time for its debate came and with reserve for its commercial aspects.

It noted that in his ruling, the Speaker said that it was the Public Accounts Committee, not an individual MP, who could ask for publication of the contract.

Informed sources said there was a possibility that the two sides in the PAC would tomorrow disagree on the timing of the contract's publication. Although it is chaired by an Opposition MP, the PAC is made up of four government MPs and three MPs from the Opposition.

In a statement this morning, the Nationalist party said that following yesterday's ruling, the government had nowhere to hide. It said any further delay in publication of the Henley contract was unacceptable. If it had nothing to hide, the government should publish it immediately and not wait till after Saturday's elections.